Schools respond to Civics Test Law

By Edna Sailor

House Bill 1087 passed the state legislature last week and the Governor has signed it. The legislation changed the game for 2016-17 Senior Classes in every High School in the state. Seniors are now required to pass a 100 item exam by at least 60% in order to graduate. They may take the test more than once to accomplish that task.

High School Administrators in area schools expressed mixed feelings over the legislation. While the issues raised by the bill are important, they had questions about how the test would be implemented and were concerned whether the requirement would add to an already overloaded testing schedule.

"We teach to North Dakota Standards. Do we need a civics test after kids completed the North Dakota Curriculum in Social Studies? It sounds like some politician’s pet project, "Brian Nelson Said. He is the administrator of Lewis and Clark Consortium in Berthold, Plaza and Makoti.